Swear On My Life
*Sorries about that last beginning of a sentence, the "When he awoke," part…was not supposed to go there, LoL! Once again sorries, read on!*
Disclaimer: heh, forgot to do this for the first two chappies…whoops!! Well basically, J.K. Rowling owns everything you recognize…what you don't is my pure and utter genius ^_^_^ j/k LoL ^_^ I'm only doing one of these though, so if yur that interested check back here
Last Chapter: 'As pain took over his mind and body once more, James couldn't fight it any longer and let his head fall to the soft forest ground once more.'
Chapter 3: Mysterium
When he finally woke up, James groaned, and opened his eyes very slightly. All of a sudden, noise pounded against his eardrums as a very loud voice screamed,
"HE'S ALIVE!!! HE'S ALIVE!!!!!"
"Stuff it Sirius…ugh, where am I?" James replied sleepily.
Sirius pretended to look offended, and retorted with
"That's the thanks I get for saving your life?!?"
Immediately following that, James watched bemused as Tracy's hand shot out of nowhere and smacked Sirius' head.
"You annoying little prat, you couldn't save yourself if you wanted to! I seem to recall last night how you were screaming for dear dear life until that mysterious figure came up and stopped that Cruciatus somehow." Tracy said as James started laughing at his friend.
"Hey! Fighting foul! Besides, it's not like you were in the best shape ever! Person saved you too, remember?"
"Well at least I'll admit it! Unlike someone I know who is all talk and no action! If you weren't so freaked out about saving your own fat arse you probably would have been running around like some pathetic damsel-in-distress."
James laughed even harder and then started thinking over the events of the previous night. Who was that person? James stopped laughing as he looked over at his two friends who were deeply involved in a staring contest at the moment, both glaring daggers at the other, though Tracy seemed to be winning; Sirius' right eye had started to twitch. Holding back another burst of laughter, James said,
" So what exactly happened last night? I mean, the last thing I remember is Voldemort about to kill me, then all of a sudden, I heard a woman scream out 'No!' and she must have performed a shielding charm, but somehow at the same time, disarmed Voldemort. Is that even possible? I thought you had to point your wand at the person you wanted to shield to have it work, but when I looked at her, the light seemed to be coming from her hand and not her wand. How did you find me anyway?"
Tracy was slightly frowning and appeared to be in deep thought, while Sirius started to explain to James, " Well, like Tracy said, we were getting our arses kicked because there were so many of them, and we couldn't find you, plus they knew some pretty screwy spells. We managed to get five to Azkaban though, the Rosiers, Wilkes, Crabbe and Goyle. Anyways, we were getting the Cruciatus put on the both of us when all of a sudden, this robed person just came from out of no where and started helping us out. By then, most of the Deatheaters had already apparated away in fear, she was really good. Then she disappeared again. After Tracy and I came to, we saw you not too far away, and there was this weird mark next to you in the air, about four feet off the ground. I thought it was just a random gathering of silver stars, but Tracy here seems to think that they resembled some kind of flower, a lily, actually. Weird huh? Anyways,"
"Wait" James interrupted, "a lily?" Sirius tried to avoid his friend's pressing stare, and replied,
"Come on James, you don't actually think it was Lily do you? Prongs, it's been two years, you need to move on! I know you never lost your feelings for her and had to leave her because Dumbledore said that the training had to be top secret, but you need to move on."
James looked beaten once more and said,
"You don't know what it felt like Padfoot. Everything was so perfect with Lily, she was my best friend after you, and I love her. I promised that no matter what, I'd always love her, but she didn't believe me when I broke up with her. God, I can't believe I did it. Why did it have to be secret anyway? Damn!" "Because, you know there was a spy at Hogwarts. If someone had known that you two were going to be in there, they could have found out very easily, and we'd probably be dead right now. Anyways, it wasn't Lily last night James, it couldn't have been. Besides, Lily's good, but there's no way that she could do two spells at once, and plus,"
"Wait," Tracy interrupted, as Sirius started grumbling,
"Let's just all interrupt Sirius today, now shall we? Sooo rude!!" Tracy glared at him, then continued, "what if that person wasn't doing two spells at once? What if that person could do wandless magic?" As they all thought about it, Sirius gasped in surprise and whispered,
"It all fits. The fourth member can do wandless magic, and has tremendous abilities with spells and charms, curses that sort of thing. James said that he heard a female voice call out. The missing member has to be female, there's already me and James. This is it." Tracy looked impressed while James quickly stood and said,
"Guys, we have to talk to Dumbledore about this, he's probably worried sick about us by now, it's almost dawn. Let's go."
After the three arrived at Hogwarts, two hours later (remember can't apparate on Hogwarts' grounds ^_^), they ran to Dumbledore's office, and quickly gave him a recap of the previous night. When James finally finished, Dumbledore remarked,
" Well, it seems the three of you have done a fantastic job. As for your theory of the missing member, I'm both impressed and convinced. You are all right; the missing member of the Order was definitely at the scene last night. I've been reading the Daily Prophet and it seems that this is not the only time this "mysterious figure" has been sighted. In fact, the newspaper is starting to refer to her as Mysterium; she's been turning in a good number of Deatheaters to the Ministry for about three months now, always breaking up meetings much like the one you three were at last night. There was never any report about how she broke up the meetings though, but with your information, we can conclude that this Mysterium, is indeed, the missing part of the Order of the Phoenix."
Tracy, Sirius and James looked pleased, but James was still feeling slightly perturbed.
"Professor, I was wondering. Well, when Tracy and Sirius found me, they said that there was a mark floating near me. Tracy thinks that it was a white lily, made up of silver stars. What I'm trying to say is…well, er, Professor, is there any chance at all that Lily Evans is the missing member?"
Dumbledore's eyes had gone dull, no longer twinkling, as his heart filled with sadness. He knew how much James had loved Lily, and never doubted that he always would love her.
"James, I'm sorry, but it just can't be possible. Ms. Evans was extraordinarily talented, but when I performed the Soul Charm on her, it was evident that she could not be the our missing person. You see, the Soul Charm allows the creator of it to view directly, any person's soul. Had Ms. Evans been the final member, her soul would have had a red phoenix glowing straight above her heart. Let me demonstrate," Dumbledore took out his wand, pointed it at James and muttered, "Almarecium" As a faint, silvery light surrounded James, sure enough, above his heart was a small, red phoenix. Dumbledore continued,
"You see, being a member of the Order of the Phoenix is a great honor. It is something that is in your destiny, a part of you, a gift to you at birth. Some things even magic can't change and that is the power of fate and the pull of destiny. Ms. Evans is a very talented witch, but she is not the missing member of the Order of the Phoenix. Now if you'll excuse me, I must join the teachers in the Great Hall for lunch. Will you three be staying? I'm sure we can whip up two more settings at the Gryffindor table, and one more at the Ravenclaw house table."
Dumbledore finished, blue eyes twinkling once more at his three students. Tracy beamed, and followed Dumbledore while Sirius screamed "FOOD!!" and ran ahead of his two friends and the Professor. James, on the other hand, was crushed. He followed Tracy and Prof. Dumbledore reluctantly, thinking about the days that had gone by.
Two years ago, he, Remus, Peter and Sirius would be sitting in their Advanced Transfiguration class right now, preparing and running over last minutes details for yet another prank they would be pulling on the Slytherins at lunch today.
Two years ago, he would be walking through the halls with Lily next to him, her dark red hair flying behind her, as they ran back to Gryffindor tower to get the pack of Filibuster's Fireworks that were needed for the prank.
When they finally reached the tower, James would fetch the Fireworks while Lily caught her breath. As he came back down the stairs from the dormitories, Lily would jump on him from behind the statue of Godric Gryffindor, laughing, knocking him to the floor in surprise, and he would straighten his glasses, and look up into her beautiful, sparkling, emerald eyes, while trying to get up with her sitting on his back. He would reach behind him and tickle her sides, and while she shrieked with laughter, he'd pick her up, throw her over his shoulder and begin walking back to the Great Hall. She would scream, kick and punch him and protest, but all the while laughing, and when he finally put her down, she would throw him a look that could kill, before whipping right back around and kissing him.
While Sirius wolfed down countless drumsticks and mounds of mashed potatoes, James ignored his meal, and preferred instead, to lose himself in his daydreams.
~*From another P.O.V. starting after James' rescue*~
After Apparating back to her flat near the Leaky Cauldron, she took off her black shoes and tugged off the heavy, long, hooded black robe. Dark red hair tumbled down past her shoulders, halfway down her back as she removed the hair elastic that was holding it back. Reaching for her brush, she started to comb out her hair when she caught a reflection of herself in the mirror. Dark green eyes stared back at her as she threw herself a little smile and walked to her bedroom to collapse on her bed.
She was so tired after the last night it had been long and tedious work, plus that last charm; she wasn't even sure it would work; she hadn't done a charm that could protect another and never before had she had to save anyone else from the Deatheaters. For almost three months now, she had been tracking the Deatheaters and Voldemort, showing up at the meetings she knew about and trying her hardest to take them down. Never before had anyone else been there to try and help her.
Lily (::gasp!!:: bet you didn't know it was her right? LoL!) put her brush back down and fell backwards onto her bed, still in thought. Lily closed her eyes as she replayed the night in her head once more, everything had happened so quickly.
She remembered arriving to a scene of chaos, which was weird because she was positive that she had over heard one of them at the last meeting say that they would be meeting again tonight, not an attack, at midnight. It wasn't long after when she spotted three other figures, all dressed in Deatheater disguises, trying to knock out and capture the actual Deatheaters.
One of them had somehow been able to freeze objects coming towards him (not spells though), and he could freeze wands. Another had a hand up to their head, and Lily was sure that one was telekinetic, her old friend Tracy Williams (AHEM) had shown signs of being able to do that in their first year, but it was only in times of distress, like once when Lucius Malfoy had stolen her quill and she made it fly back to her. That must also be why Lily could've sworn that there were Deatheaters floating above her. It was another one though, that Lily was most interested in.
When she arrived at the scene she had felt some sort of weird pull, guiding her through the chaos to the third person. This one was able to deflect spells with a wave of his hand. Not only was he skilled magically, she stole glances at him as she continued doing her job, and noticed that he could also throw a very nice punch, and some very well placed kicks. While stunning another Deatheater, Lily stole another glance at the intriguing mystery man, and she realized that Voldemort was about to kill, him. She finished with the Deatheaters who were doing the Cruciatus on the two figures she had seen before though they didn't look too good now, and started sprinting towards him (sorry if it's confusing, she took out the guys torturing Sirius and Tracy, now rushing towards James) and put up a Shielding Charm just in time, with her hand to protect the both of them, while hitting Voldemort with the Disarming Spell.
It had definitely drained her though, after all she had only gotten the power about a year ago, after her grandmother and parents had died at the hands of the Dark Lord. After a month of intense training, and trying to perfect her use of magic without a wand, she only just gotten the hang of it, and the process was very draining. It was quite simple to initiate though, all she had to do was raise her hand, concentrate on a spell, and it would shoot out of her flexed hand. It had taken her weeks to do two spells at once, one with her hand, the other with a wand.
After her two months of training, she had decided that it was time she start tracking the Deatheaters and Voldemort and make them pay for killing her parents and grandmother. Lily smiled as she remembered the day she first realized she could do wandless magic.
It was early on a Saturday morning, and Lily Evans was in NO mood to be woken up by a telephone call. It had been four months after she lost her parents and grandma, and though she missed them terribly, she was at peace. She yawned widely, and knew that she would have to get up eventually so she stretched slowly, unclenching her fists and flexing her hands while bringing them back down to her sides. Her left hand lingered though, and she was half way to the phone when she started wishing that she had her wand so that she could Summon it to fly to her, when the cordless phone zoomed into her bedroom right into her hand!
Ever since then, Lily had trained and tried to research her power as much as she could, and ever since then, she had prepared to do battle with Voldemort and his followers to avenge the deaths of her family members, and the deaths of so many others. Lily sighed and started to climb under the covers of her bed, happy that the night had been successful; she had turned in five more of Voldemort's supporters. Five more would pay for all the evils they had done, and she was content.
Before she fell asleep though, Lily looked up to check the lock on the window next to her bed, and her eyes fell upon something that was on the windowsill. Confused, she sat up, and reached for it; it looked like a silver chain, and she wondered why she had left her necklace there. As soon as her fingers brushed the chain, past memories began flooding into her mind, and she couldn't help but cry.
When the necklace finally reached her lap, Lily ran her fingers over the familiar surface. She remembered the days when this necklace hung around her neck every second of the day. She took the star (Lily favored stars over hearts…well I do atleast ^_^) shaped locket in fingers and pressed gently on the diamond that sparkled in the center. The locket sprang open, and she looked once more at the pictures that were burned into her memory.
The left side held a picture of her past love, James Potter. She laughed through her tears at the picture. There he was, readjusting his silver wire glasses, running a hand through his always messy raven black hair. He then smiled at her, and started laughing, his dark, blue black eyes, which she loved so much, dancing with joy.
The picture on the right was of her and James, taken by James' friend Sirius while the two were cuddling on the couch in the Gryffindor common room. Wrapped in her boyfriend's arms, 17-year old Lily Evans knew nothing about the world around her. Her world was all that mattered, her parents, her friends, and though Voldemort was taking out so many people, she grieved, yet in those days, she was sure that Lord Voldemort would just go away someday.
Now 19-years old, Lily Evans was nothing like the girl she used to be. Though her features were the same, her eyes no longer held the same innocence, love and hope. Her eyes were bright, but filled with sorrow and pain. Grieving and defeat haunted her brilliant green eyes. But, there was something else there also. Determination. Pride. Revenge.
Lily didn't allow herself to dream or wish anymore. As her fingers glided over the surface of the star once more, tears came to her eyes, and Lily didn't bother to hold them back. Lily did wish. Lily wished that there was still some one left in the world that truly loved her. As she mulled over these new thoughts, a memory came forward, and she subjected herself to it willingly.
*Flashback: End of Seventh Year*
James and Lily were seated at the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade. As students prepared to take the Hogwarts Express home for the last time, the two of them had snuck out early that day to bid Hogsmeade farewell. As they sipped their Butterbeers, James took a deep breath, and reached for Lily's hand.
"Lily, I have something to tell you. I'm sorry, but I can't see you anymore. I mean, we have to break up. It's just, I have to go somewhere today, and I wish that I could tell you where, but, Tiger Lily, I just can't. We just can't be together anymore."
Lily stared, open mouthed at him in shock and wrenched her hand back from his grasp.
"What the hell do you mean James? We can't be together? What the hell are you talking about? I can't believe you! I thought you loved me James, I really did, and I thought I loved you to. How could you do this to me?"
Lily, now on the brink of tears, stood, and prepared to run. She would not cry in front of him, but James was quicker, and in a second, he had her in a tight hug.
"Tiger Lily, you know I love you. I can't explain, but you don't know how much this hurts me. I'm sorry, but I have to end it. But no matter what Lily, I promise that I'll always love you. I swear on my life that even if we can't be together, I'll love you 'til the end of time."
Lily broke away at once, and ran out of the pub, her heart broken. What was he talking about anyway? I don't care. I hate him. Turning back only once, Lily said,
"Don't make promises you can't keep."
*End Flashback*
Wiping the tears from her eyes, Lily shook herself come on Lil, snap out of it. He's gone, probably has a family somewhere out there. You're all alone. and forced herself to sleep. She needed the rest; she had heard rumors earlier that there would be an attack tonight and she would need to patrol. Rolling over once more under her sheets, Lily realized she was still clutching the necklace.
Gently chiding herself for being so childish, she couldn't resist, and slipped the necklace around her neck. Not long after, as the moon started to set, Lily slipped into a peaceful, dreamless sleep.
A/N: Soooo how was it? Good I hope!! THANKS FOR THE REVIEWS EVERYONE!!!! You guys really make my day when you review ^_^ Thanks for all the encouragement everyone, I love you all!!!!!! KEEP REVIEWING!!!! Sorry it took so long for me to get this out, stupid computer kept freezing for some stupid reason…grrrrrrrrr…hope it's not confusing and that you like! REVIEW! Sorry but I'm busy this weekend so next chapter won't be up til…eh Saturday night/Sunday morning (as in past midnight ^_^) or Monday ^_^
Next Chapter: battle number 2!, Lily meets James?, more about the mystery behind Lily and her powers (the how, the why, etc etc…) J/L coming up soon don't worry ;-D Remus is coming up too!!
~*Priscilla*~